The Rise Of A Porter

A couple of days later...

Shanghai's nightlife had magic weaved in the air. No matter how much someone hated the city life, no one could hate this place, especially if that person had spent 17 years of their life there. Being the country's most populated city, Shanghai never slept. People were always on the streets. Some enjoyed themselves while others tried hard to earn a living while fighting against the crowd that was ready to swallow them alive on their first mistake.

It was a kill or be killed situation for the people. But no one was ready to give up their comfort for someone else. Yet, the atmosphere of the city even made this grim scenario seem lively.

"This place has changed so much..." Arnold murmured while watching the city he spent his childhood in. 

He was standing on top of Shanghai Tower, the tallest building in the city. He had warped into the city just a few hours ago and within the first two minutes, he had already totalled someone's brand new Tesla. Well, technically it wasn't his fault.

Instead of following legal procedures and taking a flight to get to Shanghai, Arnold decided to use void travel to get to his birthplace and his home. Little did he know his house was no longer where it was supposed to be. Instead, he ended up warping in the middle of a street and within seconds a speeding crashed into him.

Their collision was inevitable as there was no time for Arnold to dodge the incoming vehicle. The result of their collision was similar to the crash testing of the high-end vehicles. The tesla was thrashed beyond recognition. But Arnold managed to grab the driver by his neck as he flew out of the windshield.

He knew how his countrymen behaved in these situations. So Arnold quickly knocked the man out, dragged his broken tesla and placed it under a street light before bending the street light over to make it look like the man had been driving irresponsibly (which was true) and ended up colliding with the street light.

When he was done, he left the place and headed towards the crowd to ask them about Ling industries, since the city had changed a lot in about a decade. He was wondering whether he'd be able to find the main office building again, and was surprised to know that technically Ling industries owned more than half of the city. However, it wasn't a pleasant surprise for him.

The amount of disgust the locals had for the something his father built with the intention to help them made Arnold sick to his stomach. All the reputation his father had to build over the years was nowhere to be found. It was like everything has changed...

He then kept digging for more information regarding the matter and it was then he found about his uncle's new criminal background.

"Just when I thought that basta*d won't fall further, you always manage to prove me wrong," Arnold gritted his teeth in hopes of suppressing the rage dwelling within him. 

Frankly, he did not give a sh*t about what his uncle did with his useless life. But the fact that he had been smearing sh*t all over his father's company's reputation was something entirely different. He walked to the Tower as a way to try and cool himself down. 

After spending 4 hours standing on the roof of the tower, Arnold decided it was time to visit his uncle. Thankfully, the headquarters of the business hadn't changed so it didn't take long for him to get there. 

But before he could enter the building, he heard a familiar voice call his name. He hadn't heard that voice in a long time. However, it belonged to someone special to him. The owner of the voice was his high school friend, Zing Long.

Standing at 5' 6" tall, Zing looked as tanned as Arnold remembered him seeing over a decade ago. However, his triangular face had changed quite a bit and now he had a softly shaped jaw along with his awkwardly large nose, puffy lips, and his large brown eyes, which almost made him look like an alien.

He had also dyed his long natural brown hair in a deep purple shade that matched the Wisteria tattoo on his left forearm. He was wearing a black ripped jeans under his plain white shirt with the sleeves rolled over.

"Excuse my rude behaviour, but you're Arnold aren't you?" Zing asked Arnold in his squeaky voice.

"I see you haven't grown an inch, you tanned goblin." Arnold smiled at his long lost friend.

"Oh my god, it is you! But damn... how the hell did you get so handsome? You'll disclose your secret to your little brother, won't you?" Zing asked as he accepted the offer to shake Arnold's extended hand, "Oh... what happened to your arm? Don't tell me you're a warrior as well!?"

Arnold was a bit surprised that Zing didn't know who he was but then he remembered that the Chinese had their own social media and news houses that only telecasted what was beneficial to them. In other words, people were completely cut off from most of the global affairs.

But rather than clearing Zing's doubts, Arnold decided to play along with his old friend.

"Yeah, you can say something like that." Arnold smiled as the friends let go of each other's hands.

"Keeping that aside, why did you leave the country without even saying goodbye, huh? Your uncle told us you ran away and hence he had to take care of the family business. But no one ever believed him. Not even his old and trusty employees."

"It was nothing serious. I just had to take care of a few things and I'm back now."

"Ah... that makes sense now. You've awakened and thus you're here for your evaluation, right? I guess even you want to work for your uncle like everyone else." Zing asked once again, "Come on, let's go in."

"Wait, you work here?"

"Of course, I do. After all, I'm the manager of this place." Zing replied with a cocky smile.